If someone join this forum only for enriching knowledge about Bitcoin, Bitcoin transaction, Bitcoin mining, Atlcoin etc then I will say merit is nothing for him. But if someone join this forum for earning money then I will say merit is everything for him. You can see this in Signature campaign.
Your opinion is very true and this is what is happening right now. I don't want to be a hypocrite, but this is indeed the case. Besides learning about the knowledge of Bitcoin, Blockchain and crypto, I joined this forum to make money by working on bounty campaigns or participating in sugnature campaigns.
Merit becomes very important when some signatute campaigns require that at least the last merit received in the last 120 days.